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- Where:
- The Source Hotel & Market Hall, 3350 Brighton Blvd., Denver (RiNo)
- The Draw:
- Showstopping temaki and nigiri at excellent prices; a happy hour that’s unparalleled in its generous offerings
- The Drawback:
- The QR code menu is clunky; it’s better to hail a ride-share than navigate the parking garage
- Noise Level:
- Low to medium
- What To Order:
- Oshizushi, spinach goma-ae, temaki, Hokkaido scallop nigiri, shoyu-butter scallop
Although Temaki Den has been open since October 2020, there’s still some IYKYK surrounding the RiNo destination, where executive chef Kenta Kamo spins magic and craft. The restaurant, initially a collaboration between Ototo veteran Kamo and Toshi Kizaki (who oversees the Den Corner restaurants Ototo, Sushi Den, and Izakaya Den with his brother Yasu), bears the chefs’ hallmarks of pristine fish and perfect rice. But first, you have to find the place.
For starters, it’s one of only two restaurants rattling around on the “hall” side of the Source Hotel & Market Hall on RiNo’s Brighton Boulevard. Park in the garage behind the building and let us know how long it takes you to find your way via stairs, elevator, and ramp to the restaurant. Once inside, though, you might be surprised to find the cavernous center of the hall awash in sushi obsessives milling about, eager to grab a seat well before the sushi bar opens for happy hour at 4:30 p.m.
Your journey and the wait will be worth it, though: Absolutely no one does rice better than Den Corner and Temaki Den. “Rice is the most difficult part of sushi,” Kamo says. “There is a saying in the sushi world, ‘Rice is life,’ and most chefs will tell you 80 percent of importance in sushi is rice.” Not a single grain here is under- or overcooked, or packed so loosely it falls from a bite or so tightly that it becomes gluey. The rice isn’t a method of delivery; it’s a star.
Get your first taste with the restaurant’s namesake temaki, handrolls that can be ordered individually or, during lunch or happy hour, as sets of three ($15), four ($19), or five ($24). If these sound skippable, ignore that urge and order anyway. The nori wrapper has a slight snap and crunch, and the rolls are shaped like cigars instead of cones to ensure even distribution of ingredients in every bite. My favorites are the slightly fiery red shrimp, the freshly chopped and flawlessly spicy yellowtail, and salmon with crunchy fried shallots.
You can’t go to Temaki Den without ordering the oshizushi ($4 each, $3 during happy hour), an old art form in which layers of rice and fish are pressed into rectangular molds and garnished, right before serving, with a soy aïoli-esque sauce that bubbles under a blowtorch’s blast. “Oshizushi is a good way to have…creativity while being able to stay somewhat true to tradition and educate guests about the history of sushi,” Kamo says.
The pressing method adds toothsome density to the textures and yields nigiri so good that diners are limited to four pieces each during happy hour. The sweet and creamy salmon is more popular, but the rich, buttery mackerel is a staff favorite.
Once you’ve sampled your way through the happy hour menu, it’s on to the Hokkaido scallop nigiri ($4.25 each) topped with yuzu salt and a squeeze of lemon. I could eat a dozen of these beauties, each scallop scored to create more surface area and nooks to catch the hints of citrus and crunchy salt. If you want, you can splurge on the omakase option, which isn’t a set amount of courses or a set price; instead, you choose the pacing and the fish keeps coming until you wave the white flag.
Although the multiple forms of sushi and sashimi are the obvious focus here, there are a couple of sleeper items to look out for, first among them the spinach goma-ae ($5). The deep green twirl of steamed spinach tossed in a lusty sesame-dashi sauce isn’t the prettiest dish, but it has serious umami punch. The shoyu-butter scallops ($12) come served on a large half-shell bathed in a cozy sauce. Don’t let it go to waste—dip your nigiri into it or sip it from the shell.
That last tip came from our astute server, because even when you sit at the sushi counter, there’s very little interaction with Kamo and his army of sushi chefs stationed in the well. They are there to swoosh their gloriously sharp knives through jeweled fish, form perfect globs of rice with their fingers, and combine the two to create bite-size masterpieces.
Chitchat, though, comes from the wonderfully knowledgeable and effusive waitstaff. That good energy even has the power to gloss over slight missteps, such as a botched order. I certainly wasn’t mad when a couple of salmon oshizushi showed up by mistake, but I was pleased when our server noticed the error and quickly placed two of the correct bites—clean and peppy crème fraîche salmon gilded with roe ($5)—in front of us.
My only real gripe is the QR code menu (in use at the time this review went to print), written such that it creates a chaotic scroll of choices, all but requiring diners to repeatedly pick up and put down their phones. When everything else about Temaki Den’s service is practiced and quietly thoughtful, the hiccup stands out. But this minor quibble certainly didn’t keep me from planning a return visit before I even paid the bill.
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